Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an oil-rich region of northwestern China, populated predominantly by Uyghurs, Chinese, Kazakhs, Tajiks, Hui, Kyrgyz, and Mongols who adhere to the Islam religion. It is also the largest Chinese source of natural gas.

History
Xinjiang is located in northwestern China, inhabited by many Muslim Turkish peoples. The Hui Chinese, who adhere to Islam, make up a large majority of the region, which is oil-rich and also provides most of China's natural gas. The Uyghurs historically controlled the region and later the Mongols spread their people, and it was annexed as "Chinese Turkestan" by Emperor Qianlong of China in 1757 after the Battle of Altishar.

A sub-state of the Qing Dynasty of China, Xinjiang had a different culture and the Lanyin dialect of Mandarin Chinese was spoken in the region. Most of the people were non-Han Chinese, with the Hui group as the predominant Chinese ethnicity in the region. Xinjiang rebelled against its provincial government with the aid of the Kuomintang in 1937, but Sheng Shicai's Soviet-backed army defeated the Islamic rebels and the KMT and took power until 1944.